For the first time ever, Hillsborough’s two senior wrestling programs will be in the same quadrant for the state playoffs.
Cedar Ridge, the champions of the Big 7 Conference, earned a #3 seed in the 5A State Dual Team Playoff. The Red Wolves will host Atkins Academic and & Technology out of Winston-Salem at Red Wolves Gymnasium for a quad meet that is scheduled for Tuesday night.
Orange, making its return to the state playoffs after missing the 32-team field in 2024 and 2025, earned a #11 seed. The Panthers will face Currituck County, which earned a sixth seed as the only 5A school out of the Northeastern Coastal Conference, a split 5A/4A/3A league.
The Knights hosted a quad meet in the 2024 3A State Tournament, where they lost to Person in the opening round. Cedar Ridge was also a part of that meet and emerged victorious in matches against Carrboro and Person to reach the state quarterfinals.
The second round is scheduled for Tuesday night, as well. The winning team will advance to the state quarterfinals, which is slated for Thursday at a location to be determined. The 5A State Championship meet is set for Saturday at Novant Health Fieldhouse in Greensboro.
The opening round matches were supposed to take place on Saturday, but it was postponed because of winter weather that left wide portions of western and eastern North Carolina blanketed by snow.
Trying to get the opening rounds finished on Tuesday night may prove to be a challenge. Currituck County received 8.9 inches of snow this weekend. Crews with the North Carolina Department of Transportation were held off from plowing the roadways along the Outer Banks on Sunday morning because of winds that exceeded 35-miles-per-hour.
Winston-Salem received eleven inches on Saturday. While much of the Triangle was spared heavy accumulation, portions of northern Orange County started seeing heavy snowfall on Friday night. Roxboro, the home of #2 overall seed Person, received two inches.
Orange and Person County Schools will both have remote learning on Monday.
After the ice storm last weekend, Orange County Schools never held classes in person last week, holding remote classes each day. Last week’s ice storm was enough to cancel the Big 7 Tournament, which was slated for Seaforth High in Pittsboro originally slated for January 24, then rescheduled for January 28 to no avail.
For the past two years, Cedar Ridge has been a participant in the Atkins Invitational in Winston-Salem. On November 15, the Red Wolves placed seventh overall in the tournament. Junior Alejandro Briones won the 150-pound championship, beating Jserie Womble Yancey of Greensboro Dudley High School 7-4 in the championship match. Senior Favio Jaramillo, who earned his 100th career win in the season-opening tri-meet against Eastern Alamance in November, reached the championship match at 120 pounds. Jaramillo defeated Leon Young of West Stokes in the semifinals.
Juan Jaramillo, a sophomore, didn’t compete in this year’s Atkins Invitational. Jaramillo is tied with his brother for second place on the team with 32 wins. Briones has 35 victories.
This is the second time ever that Cedar Ridge has hosted a meet in the state dual team playoffs. In 2010, Cedar Ridge lost in the opening round of the 2A Tournament.
Orange reached the field of 32 on the strength of beating Seaforth 42-39 on its senior night inside Panther Gymnasium, which secured 2nd place in the Big 7 Conference. Orange has already faced the top three seeds in the 5A State Tournament during the regular season.
On January 10, #1 Croatan defeated Orange 55-21 during the Havelock Duals at Havelock High School. On November 19, #2 Person handled the Panthers 46-24 at Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane. The last time the Panthers reached the State Dual Playoffs, they reached the Eastern Regional Championship match, where they lost to Union Pines. Cedar Ridge defeated Orange 60-21 on November 25.
